Power Hungry
by TR16
Summary: The dragons of Berk begin acting strange, and Hiccup starts to think they all might be sick. But, unbeknownst to him, this is beyond any sickness... and even the dragons themselves. :HxA:
1. Chapter One

**Hey peoples! ^^ So, I actually had a very rough time coming up with the overall concept for this fic, cuz my brain was seriously just dead for the longest time. And then school came and along with that, stress. So... it's a miracle that I finally got everything for this planned out and even the first chapter written out. Anyways... I'd like to thank a VERY good friend of mine, _spirit sl_, for helping me out when I came to rough patch with this story. She helped me out a lot, and I doubt I would be posting this up without her, so I want to give the greatest thanks to her. And I hope you all enjoy!**

_**Disclaimer: I do NOT own How to Train Your Dragon, any of its characters, locations, or anything involved with the movie and/or the books. The plot of this story, however, is mine.**_

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**Chapter One**

The feel of the wind rushing through his hair was welcoming. He closed his eyes as the black dragon beat its wings harder, gaining more and more speed. He felt at home up above the clouds. It was the one place where he could be truly free. Soaring in and out of the clouds with his reddish-brown hair whipping out behind him… this was where he belonged.

He was born into a dragon-killing tribe of Vikings, expected to grow up to be just like his elders, which he had been dying to do… until he actually got the chance to become one of them. The Night Fury had been so helpless, so vulnerable, so… _killable_. Hiccup had been right there with his dagger raised above the dragon's heart, but hadn't been able to kill the reptile. In that one split second where Hiccup had lowered his knife, his whole life changed. Choosing to befriend the dragon, keeping the friendship a secret, killing the Red Death after it had been revealed; the whole island of Berk was changed. Dragons were no longer hunted and killed, but taken in and adopted as pets. For Hiccup, his dragon was no less a member of the Haddock family than he or his father, Stoick. After the Red Death had been defeated, the entire Viking village looked at Hiccup as a hero, and Stoick was finally proud to call him his son. Hiccup knew that, with his new title as an actual Viking, he would someday replace his father as chief of the tribe. He was both excited and nervous.

Hiccup smiled as he and Toothless soared over the village where they lived, seeing all of the other Vikings rushing around, trying to complete their day's errands before darkness filled the sky. It had been one of the rare sunny days for Berk, and so the sunset was one of the majestic, beautiful ones, casting rays of pink, orange, and yellow throughout the sky. The ocean water surrounding the island looked like juice that came from some kind of tropical fruit, the colors were so bright. His grin spread as he remembered that this was what the sky had been like the first time he had taken Astrid on a ride with Toothless over a month ago.

As if she knew that he had been thinking about her, the teenage Viking rocketed past Hiccup, letting loose a loud, glorious laugh. Hiccup's jade eyes widened in surprise for a moment, before he, too, laughed. He reached his hand up and patted Toothless' head gently, and the dragon snorted in reply, seemingly happy to accept the challenge that Astrid had offered.

There was no doubt that the Night Fury was faster than the Nadder, and so Hiccup and Toothless quickly zoomed by Astrid and her dragon. Both Vikings laughed again as Astrid's Nadder pushed forward, trying to keep up with the other dragon. Hiccup slowed Toothless down to allow the Nadder to catch up, and they flew side by side through the pink clouds, letting their laughter eventually die down.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Astrid murmured, her eyes on the clouds surrounding them. Just as she had done on their first flight, she stuck her arm out and began streaming it through the soft clumps of puff. She didn't seem to mind that her arm got pretty wet as she continued to trail it through the clouds.

"Sure is…" Hiccup responded, his eyes locked on Astrid. She didn't notice where his gaze was kept, as her own wasn't even focused on him. Her arm was back at her side, her hand holding the reigns that allowed her to control her Nadder, and her eyes were staring down at the multi-colored ocean water. She looked preoccupied, like her thoughts were giving her stress. Hiccup wanted to ask her what was wrong, but he didn't want to pry or seem nosy.

"Life is life, right, Hiccup?" she suddenly asked, looking over at him. He raised one of his eyebrows in confusion, and Astrid chuckled lightly. "Nevermind," she muttered, looking back down at the water.

"Is there something you wanted to say, Astrid?" Hiccup asked her, honestly curious now. He didn't realize that he was leaning over towards her and her dragon until he felt the two hooks, which kept him safely latched onto the saddle, tugging at the belt around his waist. He straightened up, clearing his throat as subconsciously as possible.

Astrid sighed.

"Nothing really," she replied. "Just that… well, life is so different now. What with the dragons being our allies rather than our enemies and everything." Hiccup's eyes were staring at her face, though she pretended not to notice. He saw something in her eyes… something that said she wasn't telling him what she was honestly thinking about.

"Yeah… life's much better," Hiccup told her, tearing his eyes away from her face. "Not having to constantly rebuild our homes or hope that our sheep will reproduce." Astrid laughed at his words.

"I didn't say life wasn't better," she stated matter-of-factly, still chuckling lightly. "I'm glad that you decided to be stubborn and save Toothless' life rather than end it." Toothless gave a grateful grunt, agreeing with her words. Hiccup smirked at his dragon.

"Yeah, I'm pretty glad I did that, too."

They continued on for a short while in silence, Astrid returning to gaze at the clouds surrounding them. Hiccup's mind was buzzing, trying to figure out what Astrid would even want to keep from him. Ever since the Red Death had been defeated, the two of them had become much closer than before, telling each other almost anything. They had become the best of friends, and, even though Astrid had kissed Hiccup the day he had woken up, they hadn't pronounced their relationship.

At least… not in public.

Secret kisses, stolen in the moonlight before rushing back to their homes; holding hands as they walked through the forest with their two dragons; offers of helping fix riding gear in private always accepted…. Nothing related to their relationship was ever shown; to the entire village, they were just pals. Though the entire village had seen them kiss a month ago, everyone thought it had merely been an act of generosity and thanks. Especially now, since Astrid and Hiccup didn't let on about their true relationship. As much as Hiccup wanted to get their relationship out in public, he knew that at the moment, the best thing was to keep it between themselves.

Astrid made a sudden dive, shooting down towards the water, slicing through the clouds like a knife through a soft stick of butter. At first, Hiccup didn't even notice, because he was too lost in his thoughts. But he was suddenly yanked back into reality when Toothless turned downwards, darting down towards the ocean. They quickly overtook Astrid and her Nadder, and they all four dived into the icy ocean water. Both dragons came back above the surface with a large fish in their mouth, which they both gobbled down whole before taking off back into the sky again. Their riders merely came up soaked and laughing.

"Good catch, bud," Hiccup congratulated, patting Toothless' head again. Toothless let out a throaty chortled noise, as if he were trying to laugh. Hiccup chuckled, looking over at Astrid. His eyes lost their humor when he saw the expression on her face. "Astrid, what's wrong?" he asked her. She turned her eyes over to him.

"Nothing's wrong, Hiccup," she told him, and he saw the honesty in her blue eyes. But he saw something else there as well, though he couldn't put a label on what it was. "I'm just… thinking."

"Can I ask what about?" Astrid sighed at his question.

"Reia, and Toothless, and Grool, and Blaze, and Javo and Yavo." She spoke the teenager's dragon's names with awe in her voice, and Hiccup felt confused at that particular tone she picked. "I don't know exactly what I'm thinking about them, I just can't get them to leave my mind. The training dragons we used to practice on to know how to kill them… except for Toothless, of course. How did things change so radically in such a short period of time?"

It was Hiccup's turn to sigh.

"Astrid, I hope you're not saying that you don't like the change," he murmured, staring straight ahead. He was careful to keep his eyes away from hers.

"I'm not saying that at all," she snapped, a bit harsher than she intended. She didn't notice Hiccup flinch slightly. "I just said earlier that I agreed that life was better, didn't I? I'm just… overwhelmed at how it happened so quickly."

"Well, it took a couple weeks, technically…" Hiccup responded, still not meeting her eyes. "But… wouldn't you rather it have taken weeks than months? Or years?"

"I suppose so…"

Astrid turned her head to look over at Hiccup, but failed to get him to turn to look back at her. She sighed again, looking forward.

"It's getting dark," she murmured, pulling slightly against Reia's reigns. "We should start heading back." Hiccup looked around and noticed the dark blue beginning to invade the bright sky. He silently agreed, also turning Toothless back in the direction of the village.

"You wanna go riding again tomorrow?" Hiccup asked quietly as they landed near the edge of one of the cliffs. They both hopped off of their dragons, Astrid helping Hiccup unhitch his prosthetic left foot from its metal stirrup.

"I don't know," Astrid answered as they began walking back towards their homes. "I was actually thinking that, maybe, we could just take a little walk? Ya' know, maybe go to yours and Toothless' canyon or something." Hiccup let a smile slip onto his face at the idea. They hadn't been to the canyon since the night that Astrid had first found out about their alliance.

"I'd like that," Hiccup said, turning the smile over to her. Astrid returned it, and, before they were in view of the village, she grabbed Hiccup's collar and pulled him close to her. She pressed her lips softly to his in a quick kiss before letting go. Hiccup wasn't quite ready to be done, though he still felt dazed, as he did after every time the two of them kissed.

"I guess I'll see you tomorrow, then," Astrid whispered, a blush lighting up her cheeks. Hiccup could feel his own blood bubbling under his skin.

"Uh… y-yeah," he stuttered, wiping his shaking hands against his shirt; when had they become so sweaty?

Astrid grinned, causing her angel's face to look even more beautiful.

"Great," she said. "See you then." She turned and began walking in the direction of her house, while Hiccup mumbled out a quiet, "Bye." Toothless nudged his rider's elbow gently from behind, and Hiccup turned to look at the dragon. Toothless gave a wide yawn, and Hiccup let out a chuckle.

"Alright, bud, let's go." Hiccup placed his hand on the dragons neck as they both began the walk up to Hiccup's house, in the opposite direction that Astrid had taken. Hiccup's house was at the top of a steep hill, and Toothless often had to slow his pace to help Hiccup if he ever needed it. That prosthetic on the boy's foot made climbing the hill noticeably more difficult.

Hiccup saw his father taking a bite out of a cooked fish, sitting around the fire in the middle of the large entrance room, when he walked into the house. Stoick looked over at his son, gulping down the bite of fish he had in his mouth as Hiccup closed the wooden front door after Toothless slid inside after him. Hiccup looked back at his dad, gave him a small smile and one weak wave, and then headed for the staircase on the side of the room.

"How were the skies, son?" Stoick asked, his eyes following Hiccup towards the stairs. The teenager stopped on the second step, turning his head to look into his father's waiting eyes. He sighed.

"They were fantastic, Dad, really bright," he answered, picturing the clouds in his head. "You know… you'd be able to experience them yourself, if you got yourself a dragon." Stoick huffed, turning back to the fire. "I don't get it, Dad. You like Toothless, you're fond of all the other dragons in the village, and you're constantly asking me what it's like to go flying. Why don't you just get a dragon?"

"We don't need another dragon around since you have that Night Fury," he stated in a hard voice. "I have nothing against dragons, nothing at all, I just can't really picture myself riding one."

"You'd find it easier to picture it if you actually went out and did it…" Hiccup muttered, beginning his climb up the stairs again. Stoick didn't object to his son's statement. He continued staring into the fire, chewing on his smoking fish.

Hiccup collapsed on the bed in the far corner of the room that made up the second floor of their house. The wool- stuffed cloth he used as a mattress was soft under his back, and his feather-stuffed pillow welcomed his head with comfort as well. Toothless curled up on the rug on the floor directly in front of the bed, closing his eyes in exhaustion. Hiccup put his hands behind his head, propping one leg up while crossing the other leg over it, moving his foot in circles as he sunk into his thoughts and stared into the ceiling.

He didn't know why, since it had happened many times now, but every time Astrid kissed him or he kissed her, he couldn't help but feel a warm, tingling sensation surge through his body. Maybe it was because he had had feelings for her for such a long time and, to finally get the feelings in return, he couldn't fight the urge to be happy about it. He loved her, he knew it. And the thought of her loving him back still hadn't completely registered in his mind yet. A girl like Astrid loving a guy like Hiccup? He wanted to splash himself with cold water just for considering it.

_It's just a crush,_ he kept telling himself. _She'll get over it soon enough._

And then there was the fact that she was obviously keeping something from him. She had been thinking of something more than just the dragons earlier… something she didn't want Hiccup to know about. It had to be something important, since they hardly ever kept secrets from each other anymore. Hiccup racked his brain, trying to come up with something – anything – that Astrid would possibly want to keep from him. He came up with nothing.

With a frustrated sigh, he lowered both of his legs, pulled the large quilt over himself, and closed his eyes. He could hear his dad shuffling around downstairs, probably getting ready to head to bed himself. Hiccup honestly wondered what his dad had against getting a dragon of his own…

The young Viking yawned and, much sooner than he wanted to, slipped into unconsciousness to the light snoring coming from Toothless.

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**Not as long as I wanted the first chapter to be, but as we get more and more into the story, the chapters should start to get longer. I hope you enjoyed Chapter One, and I'll get Chapter Two up as soon as I possibly can! Please, please, please leave me a review, telling me what you think! Liked it? Hated it? Constructive criticism? Just let me know! No flames, though, please. ^^;**

**~ Taylor**


	2. Chapter Two

**Thanks to those of you who commented on the first chapter. ^^ It really means a lot to me when I see that my story has gotten a new review.**

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**Chapter Two**

Hiccup's eyes fluttered open the next morning when a stream of brightness slid through a crack in the roof and hit him right on the face. He blinked a couple of times, sitting up on his bed to get away from the ribbon of brightness. He looked up and saw the small hole in the roof where the sunlight was cracking in. He would have to remind himself to tell his father about that; it wouldn't be very convenient in a rainstorm.

When Hiccup swung his legs over the side of the bed, he found himself surprised that he didn't accidentally kick another sleeping body. He observed the entire room, but didn't see Toothless anywhere. He shrugged it off, guessing that the dragon had just gone outside a little earlier. Toothless knew how to open and close their front door, which wasn't a very rare thing throughout the village. All the doors on the buildings weren't that hard to operate; simple push or pull.

The teenager descended the stairwell, letting a large yawn escape. He saw Stoick sitting in front of the fire downstairs, slowly rotating a piece of chicken on a sharp metal rod. Hiccup reached the bottom of the stairs and walked over to sit across the fire from his dad, stabbing a fish with another metal rod before holding it out over the flames. The two Vikings sat in silence while they watched their food slowly cook. After a few minutes, Hiccup decided to break it.

"I could take you to get a dragon today, if you'd like," he offered, throwing Stoick a small grin. The chief didn't return it. Hiccup groaned. "Come on, Dad; don't say that you don't want one. Even if you don't want to fly, you could get a Terrible Terror! I've heard that they make great pets and provide plenty of company if you're ever alone." Stoick grunted, ripping off a piece of his chicken with his teeth.

"Don't need one," he muttered through the meat. Hiccup rolled his eyes, pulling his fish out of the fire. He hesitantly poked the dead animal with his fingers, and then sucked a sharp breath of air through his teeth and started frantically shaking his hand. After the burn subsided, he carefully tore off a very small bite of skin. He immediately spit it back out again when it burned his mouth.

"You say that now," Hiccup continued, setting his fish down to cool off. "If you actually got one, though, I'm sure you'd like it. You never know until you try, right?" Stoick didn't answer, continuing to chew on his chicken silently. Hiccup decided to give up. "Whatever, Dad. By the look of the position of the sun, I'm guessing I didn't wake up too early. Astrid and I are meeting up to hang out today, so I'll see you later."

"Are you going flying?"

"No. We're just taking a walk."

"Don't go too far."

"No need to worry."

Chomping down the whole of his fish in merely four large bites, Hiccup hung his metal rod up on one of the hooks on the wall. He grabbed the metal handle on the front door, pulled it open, and welcomed the cool breeze that blew into his face. He opened his mouth, letting the coldness of the wind cool it down a bit.

"Don't be gone too long, either," Stoick called after him. Hiccup turned back to face his dad.

"Okay… Is something happening today that I don't know about?" Stoick's eyes were full of confusion, but then he simply grinned and took another bite of his chicken.

"No, no. If it's not to be known by you, then I won't tell." Hiccup's eyebrows narrowed, but he decided not to press the subject. He was excited to go see Astrid again. With a quick wave to his dad, he stepped out into the wind, letting the heavy wooden door swing closed behind him. He began hobbling down the hill towards the rest of the active village.

Seeing all of the other Vikings already bustling around and most of the dragons already taking up the skies, Hiccup was positive that he had overslept. He found this fact strange, since he had gone to bed rather early the night before. Well… early for him.

He found Astrid in Reia's barn just on the side of their house; Astrid's mom still wasn't too comfortable with having a Deadly Nadder sleep inside. Of course, their little Terror was allowed inside whenever he so pleased.

"Hey," Hiccup greeted, walking over to her. She looked up from raking out the straw and grass, giving Hiccup a grin.

"Hey," she repeated, continuing to brush out the contents on the floor of the barn.

"Uhhh…" Hiccup chuckled, eyeing her little project. She threw him a playful punch on his arm.

"I woke up and came out here to find Reia gone," she explained, continuing her work. "So, I decided to take advantage of it and clean out her stall. I haven't cleaned it in a while… I've been pretty preoccupied by some chief's son."

"Hey, now!" Hiccup laughed. Astrid chuckled with him. "Don't use me as an excuse to get out of work."

"Okay, okay, whatever," Astrid said, still chuckling. She raked out the last of stall's contents onto a large, spread-out tarp. She leaned the rake up against the side of the barn before kneeling down next to one of the corners of the tarp. She looked up at Hiccup almost expectantly. "You mind helping…?" she asked gently, giving him another smile. He couldn't deny that beautiful face.

"Erm… sure," he responded, carefully kneeling down to another of the corners. They worked together to take all of the corners and fold them up to make the tarp into a large bag. Astrid tied the ropes hanging from all four corners tightly together, keeping the straw and grass and other contents in the bag. When she was satisfied, she carefully moved the bag back into the stall, along with the rake.

"I'll take that down to the Burn Yard later," she murmured, exiting the stall. "We were going to do something today…?" Hiccup beamed as Astrid grinned yet again.

"Yes we were," Hiccup stated brightly. "Let's go." They started off towards the edge of the village, in the direction of the woods. They kept a hesitant space between themselves while in view of the buildings, but as soon as they were in the deep army of trees, Astrid slid her hand into Hiccup's. Hiccup couldn't stop the blood from rushing to his face.

"I wonder where Reia went off to," Astrid wondered aloud while they walked.

"I wouldn't worry about it," Hiccup replied. "I woke up this morning to find Toothless gone, too. Maybe they're off doing something together." He chuckled at the thought.

"Toothless hardly ever leaves your side," Astrid pointed out, sneaking a quick glance down at the Viking's prosthetic left foot. Hiccup silently rolled his eyes.

"He's very capable of taking care of himself. And he knows that I am, too. I'm perfectly fine with him going off to have some alone time if he needs it." Astrid sighed, letting the conversation come to an end. She kept her eyes on the ground, watching her own feet take each step through the forest. Taking her sudden silence as something it wasn't, Hiccup turned his head to look at her.

"Hey… are you okay?" he asked tentatively, gently squeezing her hand. She looked up to meet his worried gaze.

"I'm fine, Hiccup," she answered, puzzled by his sudden question. "Why do you ask?"

"I don't know. You just… you seem down."

"It's nothing to worry about, really," she assured him, giving him a small grin. Not fully convinced, Hiccup decided not to bug her about it. He returned the grin as they continued walking.

After a good hour of walking and quiet conversation, they came to a large tree that was broken near the base, leaning over against one of its sisters. They stood at the top of a hill, where a large rut began. The rut ran down the hill and then went up again over the top of a small bump in the ground. Hiccup immediately recognized this place.

"Whoa," Astrid breathed, taking it in. "What do you suppose happened here?"

"This is where Toothless fell when I shot him down," Hiccup muttered. After a second of silence, confusion swept over him. "Wait… how have you not seen this before? You've been to the canyon before…"

"I went another way," she answered, still observing the broken tree. "I completely skipped past this."

"How did you find your way there, then? I thought you had just followed me, and I always went by this area."

"I did follow you… from a distance. I kept a large amount of distance between us when I followed you, to make sure that you wouldn't see me. I completely missed this cracked tree and this crash site."

"…clever."

Astrid took the first step into the rut, helping Hiccup carefully along it. He mentally cursed his prosthetic. It had been much too easy to get down this rut when had had both of his feet. It was embarrassing needing Astrid's help now… though, he couldn't deny that he liked the way her arm wrapped around his waist.

Hiccup sighed and closed his eyes when they reached the little clearing where Toothless had landed over a month ago. The cut bolas still rested on the ground, since Hiccup had never bothered to pick them up. The image of Toothless all tied up and vulnerable entered Hiccup's mind, and he tried to shake it out. He hated remembering what he had done to his best friend. The look of fear in the dragon's wide, green eyes when the Viking had held the knife up above him, mirroring the same fear that the teenager had felt. He slowly trailed his hand along the side of the large rock that he had hidden behind… and had been slammed back into. Remembrance of the pain that had shot through his head when the Night Fury had pinned him by his neck suddenly came back to him. He subconsciously rubbed the back of his head, groaning quietly in discomfort.

"And no one believed you…" Astrid murmured, touching the bolas on the ground. Hiccup turned his gaze over to her.

"Yeah, well, I'm pretty sure everyone believes me now," he replied, slipping some sarcasm into his voice. Astrid threw him a quick smirk.

They continued through the woods in the direction that Hiccup remembered the canyon was in. He hadn't been there in almost a month… but, since he had snuck there every day when he had been hiding Toothless, the path there was etched permanently into his mind. The sunlight filtered through the trees as they walked, which meant that it would be bright in the canyon. Hiccup wondered to himself why there was so much nice weather, with winter right around the corner.

The young Viking couldn't stop the smile from spreading across his face when they finally arrived at the canyon. The sun glistened off the small body of water, and a hazed rainbow was visible near the bottom of the small waterfall. This was what it had looked like the first day Hiccup had come here and found Toothless trying to escape. The canyon almost looked empty without the large, black dragon there, waiting for the Viking to arrive.

"And here we are," Hiccup whispered, realizing in that moment just how much he had missed coming to visit the canyon every day. He smiled at the sun that warmed his face as Astrid gently squeezed his hand.

"It's as beautiful as I remember it being," she murmured, a smile on her face as well. They walked down to the canyon's ground level and knelt down, taking turns crawling under the Viking shield that Hiccup had wedged in between two large rocks on his second visit to the canyon. He hadn't felt the need to remove it, and so there it stayed.

A bird chirped before taking flight out of the branches of one of the many trees. It turned down, flew down to the water, and stole a small fish with its beak before disappearing into the tree again. Hiccup chuckled.

The two Vikings walked, hand in hand, around the pond and over towards a coincidentally placed crescent made of large rocks, all the same size as the rock back at Toothless' crash site. Hiccup grinned as they walked by the large lines drawn through the dirt. Through all the constant rain that Berk received, Hiccup was surprised that Toothless' attempt at drawing a picture in the dirt still remained. The two sat down in the middle of the crescent rocks, hands still intertwined.

"This is nice," Astrid stated, observing the canyon some more. Hiccup leaned his head back against the rock behind him, closing his eyes.

"Mhmm," he mumbled. It felt nice to be sitting next to Astrid, their hands held together, the sun warming their faces. A slight breeze blew off the cool water, causing Astrid to shiver very slightly. Hiccup felt her shiver and immediately began slipping his fur vest off of himself.

"Hiccup, you don't have to…" Astrid began.

"I want to," Hiccup pressed, flashing her a grin. She returned a soft smile as Hiccup wrapped his vest around her shoulders. Astrid welcomed the warmth against her bare arms, wearing the vest more like a cape than a vest.

"Thanks," she murmured as Hiccup rested back against the rock.

"No problem," he replied. They were quiet again, listening to all the different birds singing around them.

"Astrid, I have a question for you," Hiccup said, breaking their silence. Astrid looked over at him, seeing that his head was back against the rock and his eyes closed again.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Why do we hide… us?" Astrid's eyebrows rose as her eyes widened; she hadn't been expecting a question like that. Hiccup opened the eyes nearest to Astrid, wondering why she was hesitating so much to answer him. "Astrid?" he said, opening his other eye and raising his head away from the rock.

"Sorry, I just… wasn't expecting that," she said quietly, looking away from Hiccup. "Do you not like hiding us?"

"No, no! It's fine! I'm just curious as to why we do." Astrid sighed.

"I don't know, Hiccup, I guess it just seems king of strange. You're the chief's son and I'm just another Viking. It's weird to show how I feel about a boy who's going to lead the village one day."

"Then… what persuaded you to kiss me in front of most of the village when I woke up after defeating the Red Death?"

"I wanted to show people that I do care for you. I just feel a little awkward doing it every day in front of the entire village. Besides… we can do more in private." Hiccup felt his face heat up.

"I, erm… I suppose so," Hiccup stuttered. "If we, um… If we stay like the way we are, do you think we'll ever show… us?"

"I think so. Couples can't hide forever. Especially a couple including the chief's only son." Hiccup smiled at the sound of the word "couple". After all the years of him wishing that he and Astrid would become a couple, he was ecstatic that it was finally happening. He began leaning in towards Astrid without thinking.

"Don't worry about it," he said quietly to her. He gently took her chin in his hand and turned her head to face him. "We can hide for however long we want to… as long as this never ends." He leaned in, closing his eyes, and softly pressed his lips to hers. He felt her hand snake around to grab the back of his neck, pulling him further into the kiss.

"Never," Astrid whispered when their lips parted for a second. Hiccup had a second of air before Astrid pressed her mouth to his again. After a short moment, Hiccup threw himself harder into the kiss. He began moving himself around to Astrid's front, refusing to break their lip contact. He took her legs in his hands and wrapped them around his waist as he sat right in front of her. He kept his hands on either side of her face as he pressed her back against the rock. Their lips moved furiously against each other, Astrid sliding her hands up into Hiccup's reddish-brown hair.

Their lips ripped apart with both of them screaming at a loud horn that echoed off the trees. Hiccup gasped for breath, trying to slow his heart rate down. Astrid did the same.

"That's the village," Hiccup stated, unwinding Astrid's legs from his waist. "We'd better get back."

"Right," Astrid agreed, clearing her throat quietly. Hiccup got to his feet and then offered Astrid his hand. She gratefully took it and let Hiccup pull her into a tight embrace. He pecked her on the lips once more when they pulled apart, giving her a toothy grin. She giggled.

"Come on," Hiccup chuckled, taking her hand in his again. They began back to the village and, by the time they were re-entering the forest, Astrid's nerves were taking over. Hiccup was too full of bliss to notice her hand shaking in his as they walked.

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**I know we're not really gettin' anywhere with the plot quite yet. I'm just trying to set everything into motion with these first couple chapters. The next chapter will be kicked up a notch with the plot-building, I promise you. This chapter is basically surrounded by AstridxHiccup fluff and more of Stoick's reluctance to own a dragon of his own.**

**Please review! Feedback is what keeps an author going, peoples, it really is!**

**~ Taylor**


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